Trial and Terror: A Wolf's Tale
by Moonfire
Summary: My sequel to the enchanting TV show, centering mainly on Wolf and Virginia...and introducing a half cat/human, and Wolf's brother, Silver, also a half wolf
1. Default Chapter

TRIAL AND TERROR: A WOLF'S TALE  
  
  
Central Park: 11:25 pm  
  
"...10, 11, 100!" Cried Wolf as he sprang from behind a tree to "find" Virginia, though he already knew her location from sense of smell. His tail protruded from exitement, his breath coming in wolfish gasps as he ran through the shadowy park. Except for a bum rumaging through a nearby garbage can, they were pretty much alone. Virginia stifled a giggle from beneath the bush she was hiding behind, having planned this location on purpose to ensure the privacy they would need when Wolf found her. This had been their little ritual ever since their first "date" in the woods on the other side.   
  
Virginia held in her breath. He was near, she could sense him behind her.   
  
Only the figure that emerged wasn't Wolf.   
  
It was a mugger.   
  
Before Virginia could scream, the creep had his gloved hand over her mouth and a knife to her throat. He fumbled clumsily in her pockets for money, keeping his steely eyes on her the whole time for any false moves. It was then that her stupid ring decided to sing.   
  
"Something's gone wrong! Where has Wolf gone?"  
  
The mugger freaked out. "What the hell is that, lady?" he demanded, inching the knife closer. Virginia could only squeak.   
  
Wolf had picked up Virginia's attacker's scent immediately, and he went into attack mode himself. Barely keeping his growls of anger and bloodlust under control, he lunged for him. He knocked him to the ground, then held his arms, making him drop the knife.   
  
"Let the lady go." demanded Wolf in a low but dangerous voice. "Or I'll rip out your heart and FEED it to you on a silver platter." His eyes were flaming yellow. When the mugger turned around open-mouthed to stare at him in horror, he didn't think twice. He ran. It was perfect timing. Right then, two cops came striding up, who had just started patroling this part of the park They apprehended the thief and handcuffed him. While one cop led him into a waiting car, the other one turned to Wolf, if a little cautiously.   
  
"We've been lookin' for this guy for a long time. Good job."   
  
Virginia, still shaken but relieved, stared wide eyed at the policeman. "Thank you, Sir." she answered for a speechless Wolf, who bowed deeply to the cop, to her embarassment. From this grandiose gesture, Wolf finally found his words.   
  
"Yes, thank you, kind Sir, for your timely assistance." Virginia blushed and smacked her forehead.   
  
"He's always been a little overdramatic." she excused him, rolling her eyes.   
  
The cop smirked. "No problem. Hey, they need a security guard for this section of the park." he addressed Wolf. "You'd more than qualify. Ya' interested?"  
  
Virginia and Wolf exchanged joyful glances. "Yes!" they both chorused, laughing.   
  
"I'll put in a word for ya." the cop winked. "Apply at the main office tomorrow at 1:00 pm. I'll let 'em know you're comin."  
  
"Thank you!" they chorused again, hugging as the cop walked away. 


	2. Chapter2

Wolf's Tale: Part 2  
  
  
While Virginia sat in their shared apartment reading baby how-to books, Wolf was prowling his newly designated section of Central Park. It was still a struggle between feeding the pigeons and feeding ON them, but he controlled himself, thinking of the roast pork Virginia would have waiting for him when he got home.   
  
Home. He couldn't believe it. At no time in his life up until now had he actually lived in a house. The woods had been his home. He'd been happy there, or so he had thought.   
  
So far his job had been relatively easy. He'd had to chase away a guy playing bagpipes near a wedding with violins, and take a bb gun away from a trigger-happy kid who was shooting everything that moved, but otherwise it hadn't been bad for a first day. He'd received some strange looks around lunchtime though, when he'd gotten hungry and speared a fish in the pond. He'd waved cheerily at the onlookers, the fish protruding from either side of his mouth, and walked away as though he was tending to something urgent.   
  
Then he had seen the deer. He spit out the fish bones and stared ravonously. Oh huff-puff, MAJOR temptation! No, you mustn't Wolfie, they'll fire you! he admonished himself through newly forming saliva. Think pork! Pork! Pork! He hit himself on the forehead with each 'pork' as though this ritual would vanquish the thought from his mind. He knew it was time for his wolf-PMS again. Even in the daytime, the full moon called to him. He settled for howling instead. A group of teenagers standing nearby burst out laughing, but he didn't care. They clapped, and Wolf bowed. Still giggling and talking amongst themselves, the kids moved on, and so did Wolf, toward a big fountain, where he promptly dunked himself.   
  
***  
  
Virginia opened the door to a waterlogged Wolf, who burst through the room. Her mouth hung open as he promptly shook himself from head to toe, water splattering all over the furniture.   
  
"What...happened to you?" she demanded in both shock and annoyance.   
  
Wolf laughed heartily and picked her up, swinging her around in an exhuberant circle.   
  
"I resisted temptation!" he announced.   
  
Virginia shot him a hurt and suspicious look tinged with relief. "Well, that's good...I guess..." she raised an eyebrow and looked up at him. "Who pushed you into the lake?"  
  
Wolf threw his arms wide. "I did. And it wasn't a lake, it was a fountain. I threw myself in to keep from trying to eat that poor little deer!" The memory brought his hands to his face in fresh agony. "Where's the pork?" he changed the subject, remembering with new hunger.   
  
Virginia smirked and rolled her eyes, then put her arms around him as he slouched in the chair. "It's on the table, all ready just for you." she said lovingly, and Wolf growled. Virginia giggled and bounded over to her chair. Wolf joined her and sat down. He sniffed suspiciously. He knew this table...  
  
"I can still smell your grandmother..." he said half to himself, his eyes darting back and forth in guilty anxiety. He put his hands on either side of his head.   
  
"Eat." Virginia said simply, breaking him out of the trance. Wolf inhaled his steak.   
"You know," she continued, looking exited and thoughtful. "I think we should go on a honeymoon. There's plenty of places we could go..."  
  
"Like where?" Wolf looked up with new interest, knowing this was leading to something good.  
  
"I don't know. There's lots of places to choose from. Hawaii, Florida, Europe, Mexico, the Virgin Islands..."  
  
Wolf put his hand on her arm. "There!" he breathed, very exited now. Virginia started to ask where, and he said, "The Virgin Islands. That sounds just like your name!"  
  
Virginia smiled and put one hand against her head in support. She was very flattered. "Why not? It's less commercial there anyway. And we'd have miles of beaches to ourselves." Wolf growled again, seductively.   
  
***  
  
Wolf had never been on anything that flew before, and Virginia had to slap her hand over his mouth as he started howling in exhileration while the plane took off. He pressed his nose and fingers to the glass like an exited child. Virginia felt the exact opposite. She hated flying, and her morning sickness that had started coming on the last couple months was making it worse. She had to explain this to a perplexed Wolf, who could do nothing except hold her when the nausea hit. She'd heard somewhere that ginger helped, but that didn't do any good now. She had to settle for a 7-Up instead, and several trips to the bathroom.   
  
But her illness seemed to disappear at the sight of their destination. Wolf panted like a puppy at the beauty of the white beaches, and he strained at the window to get out. Virginia had to pull on the back of his shirt to get him to sit down.   
  
"We're almost there, wiggles!" she admonished him, a laugh in her voice. Wolf was disappointed that they didn't land right on the beach; they had to go to another airport first instead. He pouted the whole way. He tried to talk Virginia into camping on one of the islands, but she shook her head. "Hey, I've just come home from the camping trip from hell. We'll have plenty of opportunity to play on the beach. We're checking into a hotel room." Wolf drooped visibily, complete with little whimpering noises. "Come on, Wolfie." She dragged him into the room, overlooking one of the inlets that led to St. Croix beach. He looked longingly out the window while Virginia unpacked. "We can go tonight, ok?" she promised. "Besides, there's a full moon tonight." That grabbed Wolf's attention long enough to turn around and catch her up in an aggressive embrace.  
  
"And you know what that means!" he said in a mock-dangerous tone, biting her neck where it meets the shoulder. They growled and wrestled, until an unwelcome knock came at the door.   
  
"Room service."   
  
The couple slumped in annoyance. 


	3. Chapter 3

Wolf's Tale: Part 3  
  
  
Wolf and Virginia looked at each other in that silent communication that had been theirs since their first sharing. Without a word, but stifling giggles, they climbed out the window of their ground floor room and made for the beach. The moon was flooding blue light down upon them and Wolf howled triumpantly as they ran for the water's edge, stripping along the way. Virginia, laughing, echoed with her own squeaky imitation.   
  
"I feel like a bad girl running away from home." she said to him. Wolf reacted with a smile of exhileration and picked her up, throwing her into the water. Virginia screamed though the water was warm. Wolf dove in after her, dogpaddling and letting out whoops of joy.   
  
"What a dreamlike, exotic place!" he said to the night sky. The moonblood was pulsing in his veins, and his eyes started to glow green, the wild mating color of his race. When he felt like that, both his words and body became poetic. "Oh my Virginia, you are as pale as the moon, and the lovliest flower to grace this island."  
  
"Oh my dearest Wolf," Virginia exagerated, half funny, half serious, "take me now, creature of the night..." She stopped to laugh hilariously and Wolf grabbed her, saying,   
  
"Let me dive into your ocean. Let me ride the tide with you."  
  
The crashing waves echoed their lovemaking, both beautiful and dangerous.  
  
***  
  
Virginia slept on the beach while Wolf hunted in the water. Sleep would not take him till the moon set. Not he, no sleep indeed. The night was young, the fish were fresh, and he was hungry. He caught several, his tail flipping comically up in the air above the water as he dove for them. Feeling guilty, he remembered Virginia and threw a couple onto the beach where she slept, but missed where he'd intended, hitting her. Virginia awoke screeching to the cold, wet fish flopping all over her.   
  
"AAAAAA! WOLF!!!!"   
  
She spastically threw the desperate fish off her into the sand. As Wolf's butt stuck up in the air for another catch, Virginia saw a shark fin coming toward him and screamed. Luckly, Wolf had excellent hearing and desperately tried to swim out of the way, but he wasn't fast enough. Desperate, Virginia remembered the troll sleep dust Wolf always kept in his pocket for emergencies, and ran knee deep into the water to throw it on it's fin. It landed right on it, and the shark immediately plummeted. Now it was Wolf's turn to scream and run for the beach. He hugged Virginia, shaking. "What...was...that?" he stuttered, looking back to the ocean.   
  
"That was a shark, Wolf." Virginia explained. "Looks like you're not at the top of the food chain in this world, honey."  
  
"But how? How...?"   
  
"Troll dust. I have a good memory."  
  
Wolf whooped and hugged her. "My darling angel, you're a GENIUS!"   
  
Virginia laughed. "Just doing my job, honeycakes."  
  
A school of dolphins had swam up to the shark curiously to investigate. They bumped it with their noses as though playing with a toy, chattering. Wolf looked at them in horror. "They'll be eaten!" he exclaimed.  
  
Virginia shook her head. "Sharks don't mess with dolphins. And dolphins are nice to us, but they aren't nice to them." Wolf still looked unconvinced. As though reading his mind, one dolphin popped up and chattered at them comically as if to say, "Everything's under control, keep smiling!" Then with a flip of his finned tail, he was gone. Virginia gave a suprized laugh, and Wolf just stared in amazement. Then they both walked away.   
  
"Thanks for the date." Virginia said lovingly, and Wolf nuzzled her.   
  
"Anything for my dreamy creamcicle." Wolf smiled mushily.   
  
They climbed back in through the window and Virginia was shocked to see a huge bouquet of flowers on the table. She hit Wolf playfully. "You and your suprizes!" Wolf plucked one flower and inserted it behind one of her ears against her hair.   
  
"Now my flower is wearing a flower." Wolf said dramatically as he rubbed noses with her. "And now the moon has set, sleep calls, my love." He leaned back to yawn, and Virginia copied him. As he carried her over to the huge bed, Virginia smiled in bliss. She had never felt so good in her life. 


	4. Chapter 4

Wolf's Tale: Part 4  
  
  
Tony was in the middle of another football game on TV. He had the typical male skill of tuning out everything around him to watch it. The only sound he'd let interrupt him was the cap he popped on his fourth beer bottle. Even when it foamed and sloshed all over his lap, he didn't notice. "Run to the left! The left!" he shouted at the TV as though the players could hear, gesturing with his bottle in midair.   
  
***  
  
The troll trio Blabberwort, Bluebell and Burly had again snuck into Tony's apartment. They had unfinished business to attend to. Tony's tunnelvision had all but blocked out their approach. He was in the middle of yelling again when the sleep dust hit him. He slumped with his head sideways into the chair, his beer pouring uselessly onto the floor. Bluebell picked up the bottle with interest, and even started swigging from it when his sister Blabberwort swiped it away.   
  
"There's no time for that, you little idiot!" she hissed through her crooked teeth, hitting him upside the head for good measure. "We've got work to do! Now tie 'im up before he wakes up!" Bluebell nodded, then belched loudly.   
  
Their plan had been to use Tony as a ransom for Virginia and Wolf on the other side before they got home, which they were due to that same day. They still believed Virginia had killed their father, and they wanted revenge. Meanwhile, they took over the house like the nosy trolls they were. Blabborwort went into the bedroom, Burly into the bathroom. Bluebell stayed in the living room. He found Tony's Walkman, which he at first couldn't figure out what to do with. Then he found the buttons on the side, and turned it on. Tinny noises came through the earphones, which mystified him before his slow brain caught on to put them over his head. "Radar Love" blasted through the earphones, and Bluebell started rockin' out. He'd found Tony's Hits from the 70s collection.   
  
The others got tired of trashing and looking through the other rooms and soon joined him. His grabby sister made a beeline for the Walkman when she saw him with it.   
  
"What is that? Gimme that!" she demanded, yanking the earphones off his tufty black head. Bluebell whimpered in protest. Burly joined in.   
  
"Gimme the other end!" he demanded Blabberwort, and they stretched the earphones almost to the breaking point as they shared the radio between their big heads. "All riiiiight!!!" he said, instantly in a better mood. Blabborwort looked at him, and they both bobbed their heads. Bluebell stood with his arms folded, helpless. The TV was still going, and a commercial for Red Dog beer came on, set in a biker bar.   
  
The trolls temporarily forgot about the Walkman. "Yeah!" they all chorused slowly. The decision was made. They were going to seek out this magic place where beer and villany flowed freely.   
  
"What about Tony?" Bluebell protested. "We can't just leave 'im here!"  
  
"We'll take 'im with us!" Burly looked impatient.   
  
They hoisted Tony up and carried him outside. Luckily, their weird appearance and situation went little noticed in New York, the city of open-mindedness. If they had been in some small midwestern, southern, or western town, they would have been arrested in a heartbeat. They found a similar bar to the one on TV, only three blocks away. They knew it was the right place, for a row of Harleys were lined up outside.   
  
Inside, all was chaotic. This was heaven to the trolls, whose grins increased with every thrown chair, fistfight, and raunchy laughter. They hadn't quite gotten to a table, though, when the entire bar stopped to stare at them.   
  
"And just who the hell are YOU?" the ringleader demanded, stepping forward through the crowd of regulars to tower over them.   
  
"We...we just wanted to get some...beer..." Burly stuttered shakily, cringing back. Even the giants he'd met hadn't been this intimidating.   
  
"You're our kind 'a people." added Bluebell nervously. A slight smile twitched at the corner of the biker leader's mouth.   
  
"We are, huh? Nobody gets a beer till they sing a song." he said. The trolls exchanged puzzled looks.   
  
"But..."  
  
"A song!" the big, bald and bearded ringleader pounded his fist on the table, making them all jump along with the empty glasses from the prior occupants.   
  
Bluebell sputtered, "Do you have the music to...Radar Love?"   
  
The entire bar roared with laughter, and the leader smacked the smaller troll on the back. "Good choice!" They left Tony sleeping on the seat, unnoticed. They heard the jukebox clink and the familiar song start. The trolls all looked at each other with increasing bravery and hopped up on the counter. They sat on invisible bikes and took turns singing the lines, messing up a lot of the words with their own improvisations. "Nude sunrise" became "newt sunrise" and the bartender got an idea for a new drink.   
  
The sleep dust wore off, as it always did, and Tony awoke to the worst nightmare of his life. he didn't know which was worse, being stuck in a bar with bikers, or being stuck in a bar with trolls...trolls! Oh no, they were BACK! He had to get out of there...  
  
As he scrambled under the table on all fours so he wouldn't be noticed (he'd picked up a lot of pointers from Prince Wendell as a dog) who but Wolf and Virginia burst in! He looked up at them, his face as panicked as theirs. 


	5. Chapter 5

Wolf's Tale: Part 5  
  
  
Nobody went into this part of the woods and came out alive, or at least without critical injuries. Even the Huntsman, before his death, had tread it's borders with caution, not daring to go inside. Rumor had it there was a Creature guarding it whose reputation for carnage was worse than the most ravonous Wolf. Those few who had survived it's attacks came limping (or being dragged) home with stories of fleeting glimpses of a black tail like a whip, and teeth longer and sharper than a dwarf-made dagger. The same could be said for it's claws, which were like the gleaming steel talons of a gryphon.   
  
Then one day, Prince Wendell decided to play hero and set a trap for the creature. He and his hunting companions created a camoflauge job over a steel crate baited with fresh meat and set it near where the latest killing had occurred. They posted a messenger bird high up in the tree above it to inform them when it was caught. Then they left for the castle to wait.   
  
***  
  
A feline smile played across Shadow's hybrid lips. Fools...she thought with annoyance and arrogance as she watched the whole setup from an unseen, but close vantage point in the foilage. When are they going to accept the fact that this is MY kingdom?  
  
Her long black, whiplash tail twitched with the same mood of her thoughts. She had been born here, parentless, and survived all her 25 years on her own. She had taken everything that been thrown, shot, or prowled her way. Even the Wolves were afraid of her. As well they should be.   
  
She was both beautiful and deadly. She was both human and black jungle cat. Though her body was human, it was all black with short, sleek fur. She walked upright unless she was hunting, when her running speed doubled. The hair on her head was pure white and spilled over her back in long, suprizingly well-groomed streaks. Her eyes were a stunning, almost glowing blue with thousands of mosaic patterns in the iris. Her pupils were diamond shaped and contracted constantly like a camera shutter. Despite her furriness, her face was human shaped, including the nose and mouth.   
  
Little did Shadow know that another trap had been placed a few feet away from the one Wendell had just installed. Shadow knew this territory very well. She only went to the borders if she caught the scent of an unwelcome guest...or a welcome meal. This old trap had been placed there long before she'd been born, concealed by piles of bushes and leaves from years of overgrowth, but still functional. Shadow's cat-ears swiveled up and back and her nose flared at a sudden foreign scent. Then, she growled low in her throat as she recognized that scent - a Wolf. Rumaging around in HER forest! Shadow did a butt wiggle and pounced.   
  
The Wolf growl-yelped with extreme shock and pain as her claws and teeth dug into his hide, sending them rolling end over end. Shadow gave a half human, half Cat primal scream as she struggled to hold the strong Wolf down. They were in a small enclosed cave and both their eyes dialated to adjust to the dim light. Then to their horror, they heard a "CRASH!"  
  
The trap had shut on them both. Shadow screamed again in anger and terror. The Wolf fainted. Shadow at first thought she had killed him, and smirked triumphantly. Yet in the next moment something told her he wasn't dead. She could smell a slight, but determined energy making it's way to the surface, and she backed away with a snarl. Neither of them noticed the silent flutter of small black wings only feet away over their heads.   
  
***  
  
Before Shadow had a chance to really kill her unwelcome Wolf roommate, Prince Wendell's entourage had arrived and carted them both off in a wagon. Wendell and his companion's mouths had hung open at the sight of BOTH a half-Wolf AND a half-Cat. The bird had been smart in informing them of the other trap. Wendell had wisely put Shadow in the origional trap (after sprinkling both her and the Wolf with troll dust) so she and the Wolf wouldn't kill each other.   
  
"This is a unique situation." he had told his men, who reacted with various degrees of doubt and amazement. "I do not wish the creatures killed. Put them in the dungeon where I may observe them."  
  
So they had. In separate chambers, I might add.   
  
***  
  
Two days later, the Troll trio, Wolf, Virginia and Tony came bursting into the castle, squabbling loudly. The trolls had left their newly-aquired Harley bikes outside the castle, parked where the horses usually were. They'd "aquired" them with the help of a little sleep dust - their favorite form of troll-shoplifting. They'd owed it to them anyway, after that humiliation in the bar. Burly bellowed to Prince Wendell over their voices,   
  
"We demand a trial, your Majesty. This...WOMAN (and he pushed Virginia roughly forward) is STILL wanted for the death of our father!!!"  
  
Prince Wendell rolled his eyes. Everybody but the trolls knew of the Queen's death, and that she had been the one to kill their father. But to keep the peace, the Prince wisely humored the enraged Trolls.   
  
"A trial will commence at precisely 1 o'clock today." he announced to the Troll's satisfaction. "Bring any evidence you have."   
  
While the Trolls exchanged triumphant smiles, Wendell winked at Virginia, Wolf and Tony over their heads. They looked visibally relieved. Then, Wolf's nose twitched, and his eyes lit up. "My brother's here, I can smell it!" he announced exitedly. Without a word of explaination, he rushed off, with Virginia after him.  
  
"Wolf, WAIT!" she called frantically, wondering what the heck he could be doing. She could barely keep up with him as he ran through several halls, even more staircases, (when is my dad gonna have this reconstruction done? Virginia thought in agony) an unreal number of doors until they finally emerged in a labyrinth-like basement.   
  
"Warm, warmer, hot!" announced Wolf in almost childish glee, rubbing his hands together. He paused at the door his brother was in before going in. His nose caught another, very strange yet exotic scent down the hall from him. "What in the 10 kingdoms is THAT?" he said both to himself and Virginia, whose eyes were wide. She was still trying to catch her breath and didn't answer. Partly because she had no idea, either. The quest for his brother taking over his thoughts again, Wolf looked through the small barred window.   
  
"Silver?" he called. 


	6. Chapter 6

Wolf's Tale: Part 6  
  
  
A sound from behind Wolf and Virginia startled them, but they relaxed when Wolf recognized Wendell's scent. He emerged into the torch-lit hallway, extending a set of keys to Wolf.   
  
"I thought you might be needing these." he said with a slight smile, then glanced toward the other cell. "I'd avoid that one if I were you. She'll rip you to shreds."  
  
"She?" Wolf said blankly, his nose still assaulted by the strange scent.   
  
"She's a Cat." Wendell explained. "And let's just say she and your brother got off on the wrong paw today. She's the famed, feared beast of the deep woods the tales tell of. Both men and beasts have lost their lives for a generation trying to catch her or wandering too near her territory. I am going to try to domesticate her."  
  
Inside the cell, Shadows ears shot up at that last sentence. Domesticate indeed! Who did this "prince" think he was? She would do everything in her power to make that as difficult for him as possible. Awake now, though still bleeding from Silver's bites, she crept to the small window and looked out. Now another Wolf had joined their entourage. She had recognized Wolf as Silver's brother by scent long before he had called his name. She knew the worst thing she could do now was aggravate his wrath at his brother's injuries. She would lay low, pretend to be asleep if necessary. But her gleaming claws and eyes had caught Wolf's attention, and it was too late. His own eyes blazed yellow at the sight of her, and with a snarl, he leaped over to her cell. Virginia desperately tried to hold him back.   
  
"No! Wolf, you'll be killed!" she pleaded.   
  
"She's right." another, all too familiar voice, deep and rich, sounded from Silver's cell. "Shadow attacked me in self defense only, brother." he insisted with a slight growl. Wolf was still staring at Shadow through the bars, both fascinated and enraged. A low warning yowl sounded from Shadow's throat, followed by a sharp hiss as she backed up toward the stone wall. Even Wolf started at the unearthly sound. He backed away and let Silver out of his cell. "What happened?" he demanded kindly, as Virginia looked nervously at both of them.   
  
"I think I'll leave you three alone." Wendell announced nervously. "I have to prepare for the trial." He trotted quickly away.   
  
Silver stepped out to join them, every bit as handsome as his brother, only with silvery-blonde hair and grey eyes. He, too, was mostly human except for his tail and a fuzzy silver ridge of fur that ran from the back of his head down to the base of his tail, concealed now by a dark blue robe with a hood. They all walked down the hall away from the cells. "Before I begin my tale, would you be so kind as to introduce me to this vision of loveliness?" he purred in Virginia's regard, making her blush instantly.   
  
Wolf hugged his beloved tighter to him in an unconscious gesture of protectiveness. "This is my mate...er...wife, Virginia, a princess from the 10th Kingdom."   
  
Silver bowed deeply. "A pleasure, my lady." he said gallantly.   
  
"I can see where Wolf got his manners." Viginia smiled wistfully.   
  
"So what happened?" Wolf asked his brother again.   
  
"I was hunting a deer on the borders of her forest. My assumption was that that creature must have scared it off. But then I smelled the delectible scent of fresh meat, which of course I could not resist, so I changed my direction to pursue it. I assumed it was injured, for the scent remained in one place, which of course, made it all the easier for my attack. But as I went to claim my prize, she attacked. I had not smelled her before. She must have covered herself with some kind of plant to neutralize her scent and blend into her surroundings. I only found out too late that I had underestimated her. She bit my neck harder than a she-Wolf defending her cubs. And her claws?" He dropped his robe to show the damage. Virginia gasped and Wolf snarled.   
  
"I'm going to kill that she-devil!" he swore, his eyes flashing yellow again.   
  
It was Silver's turn to restrain Wolf this time. "My brother." he said gently, but firmly. "She attacked out of fear. You would have done the same thing to protect your home. I suggest you leave her to me. Prince Wendell has tended to my wounds and I have assured him my full cooperation. I don't want to do anything that will keep him from extending his hospitality. I have agreed to stay and...help...with the situation." That seemed to calm Wolf down somewhat.   
  
"Well, if you need any help, I've got friends...a LOT of friends..." Wolf said with determination. "I still wish we could just kill her."  
  
"I think we should go upstairs, Wolf." Silver said.   
  
***  
  
After a short but bitter trial, the trolls reluctantly forgave Virginia for accusing her of killing their dad. Prince Wendell prevented any possible retribution by having a closetful of new shoes made for them, including magic pairs that made the wearer able to dance according to whatever kind of music they heard. Their spirits considerably lifted, the trolls left for home to try out the shoes to their stolen Walkman music. The whole castle breathed a practically audible sigh of relief at their absence.   
  
But now the royal family faced a new dilemma: what to do with Shadow. They didn't even know her name. All Wendell or Silver (or the guards who brought her food and water) had gotten out of her were snarls, yowls, and even nips if they got too close. Wolf wanted to see Shadow in the Snow White Memorial Prison, but Wendell and Silver wouldn't have it. Then Virginia got an idea.  
  
"Have any of you guys thought of having a woman talk to her? Maybe that's all she needs, somebody she finds familiar..."  
  
The Wolf brothers exchanged suprized looks. Wolf went into his protective mod. "My dear, darling Virginia, I cannot possibly let you go in there without protection."  
  
Virginia shrugged him off. "Wolfie, I'm only going to talk to her from outside. I'm not that crazy." She started down the stairs, while the brothers sat at the top.   
  
"If I smell danger of any kind, I'm coming down there after you." said Wolf after her, while Silver's eyes sparkled in amusement.   
  
"Something tells me she should be more afraid of you." he teased. Wolf wagged his tail as much as his overtunic would allow in his own expression of amusement.   
  
***  
  
Shadow had only been asleep for a couple hours when she heard footsteps approaching again. Who dared disturb her sleep now? Then her nose picked up Virginia's scent. It was that woman! Although she didn't feel as threatened by her, she knew she was Wolf's mate. She also knew she was kept in captivity and not Silver because he pranced around like a dignitary, spouting pretty words. He was every bit as feral as Shadow was, he just didn't show it in front of the humans. Well, she never needed human permission to run free before, and she wouldn't stoop to their level now! But beneath her pride and anger was a more vulnerable emotion: homesickness, and beneath that, feeling misunderstood. She was the only one of her kind that she knew of, and felt very alone. That was why she had remained in the forest all her life. She was all she had. And she would defend that to the death.   
  
She had to find a way out...  
  
The footsteps were getting closer. Shadow felt trapped and disturbed, and it made her angry. She felt like she was on display, like she was entertaining these strangers. It was humiliating. The cell if nothing else made her claustrophobic. She longed for the fresh air, the space to roam, a quiet tree to sleep in.   
  
She heard the woman's voice speak hesitantly through the window. "Where...where are you?" Shadow could feel her fear. She could also feel her curiosity. "I just want to talk to you."  
  
Shadow understood human and Wolf speech, but hadn't had much reason to speak it herself. When she did, it was puncuated by rolling r's and other cat noises. The more she thought about the woman, the more Shadow had a plan. She could use Virginia's curiosity and desire to break through to her advantage.   
  
Walking upright, Shadow slinked gracefully to the door, staring at her calmly. Too calmly, Virginia thought. "Starrring is rrrrude." Shadow spoke, to her astonishment. Had she been hiding that all this time? "I ssse you are a female. You are no threat to me."  
  
Virginia took a step back in alarm, then slight relief calmed her down...a little. "You...you can talk!"  
  
"An excellent obserrrvation." Shadow said sarcastically, smirking. "I have found that males arrre a wassste of my time."  
  
Virginia smiled nervously. "That's a given." Then she felt guilty, remembering Wolf.   
  
"I have a request." Shadow said calmly. "That you bring me my food. I'm surrre Prince Wendell will understand."  
  
"Well, we girls have to stick together." Virginia said, feeling stupid, but feeling that she'd made a breakthrough. "I'll go tell him..." With one last hesitant look behind her, Virginia raced for the stairs. Wolf and Silver badgered her for information as soon as she got to the top. "She can talk." she said to their amazement. "But she'll only talk to me. I'm a girl." Both their mouths hung open. Virginia shrugged.   
  
"What does she sound like?" Silver insisted.   
  
"A bitch in heat." Virginia teased, while both Wolf brothers howled. Virginia ran off to get the keys from Prince Wendell.   
  
***  
  
Virginia returned cautiously to Shadow's cell to feed her. The Cat-woman even thanked her. Then, before Virginia could stop her, she was streaking out the cell and down the hall. Virginia yelled after her, partially to alert help. Shadow was too fast, though. She ran on all fours past every guard until she reached the front doors, where Silver was waiting for her. He caught her expertly, while Shadow fought for all she was worth. But Silver was padded this time.   
  
"Trying to run away from me this time, my dear?"   
  
"LET ME GO!!!" Shadow snarled, puncuating the end of her sentence with the most fearsome scream imaginable. Everybody present was staring, especially Wolf, who rushed over in a blur to assist his brother. Shadow put rows of slashes in both their padding before dropping to all fours to scamper out of the room. She was met by Prince the dog who blocked her way from leaving. He snarled and barked, bearing his teeth fearsomely. Shadow snarled and hissed back, swiping at Prince's nose. The dog took off with his tail between his legs, whining. It was then that Virginia interceeded.   
  
"Stop it!" she yelled at everybody, but especially Shadow. Taking a dare, she stood in front of the enraged and terrified Cat-woman. "I know you want to go home. But you can't kill everybody to do it."  
  
Shadow was cornered, and she knew it. "Out of my way!" she demanded, but Virginia wouldn't move. Neither would Wolf and Silver, who had surrounded her, their eyes gleaming dangerously.   
  
"Is this the only kind of life you want?" Virginia pleaded, trying to knock some sense into her. "Do you want to spend the rest of your time in the woods alone? You came to us for a reason, Shadow. You've got to learn that you're a person. Deep down you know you are. You just don't know what to do with it."   
  
Something about her words reached beyond Shadow's predomately feral, crazy nature to a part of her that knew reason. She was right, and she hated her for it. Her snarls became whimpers as she fell to her knees, shielding her head with her arms. "Leave me alone..."   
  
Virginia gave Wolf and Silver a pleading look, her eyes filling with tears at the furry heap on the floor, then she turned her attention back to Shadow. "We'll help you..." she said, not knowing what to do. Soft but racking sobs mixed with painful yowls issued from the Cat woman. She was crying. She'd never cried before, at least not that she could remember. The Wolf brother's noses were assaulted by the salty, invisible stream of her tears, and they had to step back. Silver for some reason felt her emotions even stronger than Wolf's. He had been right about her. Wolf looked at him in disbelief.   
  
Not wanting to prolong Shadow's humiliation, Virginia helped her to her room, where the other woman collapsed on the bed in a ball. She had cried herself to sleep, and was even purring. Wolf came in cautiously, followed by Silver.   
  
"Are you alright?" Wolf said to Virginia. He kneeled down and looked up at her. She smiled weakly.   
  
"Yeah, but SHE isn't..." she whispered, pointing to Shadow. Shadow stirred in her sleep, her leg twitching, Virginia had to move to avoid being kicked. They all left the room to let her sleep.   
  
"How did you do it?" Wolf asked Virginia with disbelief at the change.   
  
"We had a woman- to-cat-woman talk." she smiled. "It's gonna be awhile before she comes around to you two, though."   
  
"I am more concerned with her well-being right now." Silver confided, but there was another glint in his eye. Virginia hid a smile. 


	7. Chapter 7

Wolf's Tale: Part 7  
  
  
Prince Wendell had decided to let Shadow out on the grounds to hunt. The only thing off limits were the imported deer. Her pride still hurt, and still homesick for her own woods, Shadow was quietly thankful for this small freedom, though it meant she was still on a leash of sorts. Silver insisted on following her, but Shadow had snapped, "I hunt alone!" And that was that.   
  
Still he watched her from one of the castle windows from above, when he could catch glimpses of her darting among the trees. He was soon joined by Wolf and Virginia, who watched with him in amazement and often amusement. The funniest thing was when she did her butt wiggle/pounce. Virginia would crack up, followed by the other two. They stared in suprize at one point as she chased a squirrel clear up a tree, then dropped down on her feet with the rodent firmly clenched in her teeth by it's neck. Her running speed, especially on all fours, was as fast as a full-blooded cat's. Finally, Shadow stopped to take a catnap. She curled up with her head tilted at a comical angle a few feet away from her pile of rodent prey, content at last.   
  
"We've got to teach her to act more human." Virginia sighed. "I mean, this is cute and all, but she's still a person."  
  
"I agree." Silver said. "I knew her parents before they were killed."  
  
The other two looked at her in total shock.   
  
Silver smiled and continued. "I was just a cub then. My parents and hers used to be friends before a fire destroyed our forest. My parents lived but hers didn't. They tried to take Shadow in and raise her as their own, but she ran away after only two days. We tried to find her, but gave up after we lost her scent."  
  
Wolf looked at his brother in disbelief. "And why is it that you didn't inform me of this?" he said in a shocked and hurt voice.   
  
"You weren't born yet, Wolf." Silver put a hand on his shoulder and patted it. "You wouldn't remember her. And she wants us to think she dosen't remember us."  
  
As if on cue, Shadow chose that moment to come sweeping in, looking contented until she saw Virginia, Wolf and especially Silver. She hissed slightly and ran past them to her room, slapping Silver's leg with her tail. Virginia gave them an apologetic look and went to track Shadow down. She found her sitting on her bed, grooming - literally.   
  
Virginia sat by her, suprized Shadow was sitting upright. At least it was a small improvement.   
  
"Shadow, I want to talk to you about some things." she began, not knowing how to approach the subject.   
  
"Like what?" Shadow inclined her head almost cutely.   
  
Like casting you in the Broadway musical Cats...she wanted to say, and had to stifle a surfacing laugh.   
  
"I'd like you to try some things." she opened discreetly, knowing how finicky cats were, whether they were part human or not. "I'd like to see you use one of these." She held up a big, soft camelshair brush. "Instead of using your tongue and paws, you'd brush your fur with this." She handed it cautiously to Shadow, who looked at it in great fascination, if a little dubious. Then, when she smelled the catnip Virginia had very cleverly rubbed on it, her eyes dialated. But instead of brushing her hair, Shadow buried her face in it, smelling deeply, then dropped to the floor and rolled around with it! Virginia now couldn't hold it in any longer, and laughed so hard her ribs hurt. She hadn't counted on Shadow getting this high off just a little catnip. Shadow rolled, purred, and to Virginia's suprize, laughed. Wolf and Silver walked by the room, hearing all the noise, and shot amused looks at each other before peeking cautiously around the doorframe. Virginia put her finger to her lips and they mimicked her, staring at the strange, hilarious spectacle of Shadow lollygagging on the floor. She was totally high now, and purring like a hummingbird. Virginia called to her to get her attention, hoping there was still enough of her senses left to answer. She had to help Shadow up to the bed, and took the drugged (at least to a cat) brush out of her hand. She replaced it with a non-coated one and Shadow seemed to snap out of her listless state. She was still very content, and smiling slightly. Virginia showed her how to use the brush, starting at the top of her head. Shadow actually liked being groomed. It reminded her of something...  
  
...She had a flashback of her own mother grooming her as a baby. The vision ended as quickly as it started, and she gave a little jump.   
  
"What's wrong?" Virginia asked, stopping to look at her. Shadow gave a whiny little meow, not knowing how to convey what she'd just experienced. She took the brush from her and started grooming herself, stifling the tears that wanted to come out. How could she tell her that just being in this castle was bringing out memories she'd been suppressing all her life? What being here was doing to her? For the first time in her life, she was thinking. And it hurt. Hurt bad. Long unused and undeveloped parts of her brain and spirit were being stretched and filled. Shadow was learning there was more to life than eating, sleeping and hunting. Even more than living and dying. It was then that she first realized she had a soul. The brush had become a symbolic mirror, showing her what she really was. A person. Not just a cat.   
  
***  
  
Months passed. Shadow learned more and more things, some very reluctantly, and some not at all. The time also came for Virginia to have her baby. Shadow hated to admit it, but in that time she'd come to love her like a sister. She'd been sleeping a lot more lately, leaving Shadow mostly on her own. She still avoided the two Wolf brothers as much as possible, but now her feelings were more out of angst than hatred and fear. The Cat in her told her that it wasn't nature's way to be brought up by Wolves, that she'd been tainted somehow by her connections with them. But the Human in her told her they were bonded, and that she really loved them, but she couldn't admit that. The memory of her attacking Silver still haunted her, even moreso now that she had started feeling guilty about it. Now her guilt was compounded by knowing his family had taken care of her as a kitten, if only for a short time. She found herself wondering what had happened to Wolf and Silver's parents.   
  
The yells of Virginia's labor agony interrupted Shadow's thoughts and she cat-streaked into the birthing room, lit by several candles. Wolf was crouching by her side, holding her hand, and Silver stood close by the door. A midwife was present, and two nurses rushed in and out with towels, herbs and other comforts. Shadow stood on Virginia's other side and put a cool wet towel on her forehead.   
  
"I am here, my friend." she said softly, trying not to cry herself at Virginia's pain. Shadow had lost much of the trilling r's and other cat noises that had months ago prevaded her speech. Now she only did that when under great stress or anger. Shadow met Wolf's eyes shyly and saw the same concern and fear in them as hers. Shadow's tail twitched and so did Wolf's. So, too, did Silver's, though he was better at hiding his emotions on his face than Wolf. At last the baby came out, a little mostly human boy with a cute little fluffy tail. His cries were mixed with little puppy whines that were so funny even Virginia laughed, tears streaming from her eyes at the same time. Wolf and Silver gave the biggest howls she'd ever heard, which scared the nurses so bad they covered their ears.   
  
Shadow's mother instinct took over and she took the baby and started licking the birth fluid off, just as a mother cat would do with her kittens. They all watched in amazement and shock. Shadow then handed the baby to his mother, who held him lovingly while Wolf looked on like he wanted this moment to last forever. Then, like the fleeting twilight, Shadow was gone.   
  
***  
  
She ran out into the cool night air and sat against a tree. The transition from mostly cat to mostly human had been so gradual she'd hardly noticed it till moments like this. When she could compare. Then, a familiar scent caught her nose and she knew Silver was following her. Damn him! She thought. Why did he pursue her constantly? It was disgusting! She was now afraid of him for a different reason than she'd had in the beginning.To make it worse, she was in heat, which happened once a month. So far she'd been good at removing herself as far as possible from him, even more than usual, during those times. If he thought they were going to be mates like Wolf and Virginia, he was woefully wrong.   
  
She scampered up the tree before remembering he could smell her out from two miles away.   
  
***  
  
The moon was full, and Shadow's being in heat wasn't helping. Silver paced back and forth in his room, catching a wiff of her with almost every breath. He knew exactly where she was. Like his brother, he had a habit of talking to himself. "I look for her my whole life, and when I finally find her, she almost kills me. You should hate for that, you furball." He stopped pacing long enough to pound the wall and howl in agony. "Oh don't, you'll wake the cub...stupid Wolf..." He plopped down on the bed and covered his face in his hands to try to block out Shadow's scent, but it didn't work. Her scent made him think of many things: the sensual grace of her curves as she moved when she thought no one was looking, the cute, sassy twitch of her tail, her languid voice, her purr, her yeowls when she was in heat...like tonight...  
  
Even though Shadow traipsed far away into the woods to do her monthly cat yells so no one else would hear (because it was her nature and she couldn't stop it) , Silver had heard her, and so had Wolf, to his embarassment. For one week every month for about half the night, they were all subject to this torture. He heard her now, caterwauling to the moon in that primal, ancient song of mating, involuntary though it was.   
  
Silver's eyes turned green. He could stand it no longer. His feral nature took over, and he tore outside.  
  
Wolf had heard and felt the conflict and rushed out after him. Since he was already mated, he had better self control, and knew he was the only one who could control him. If he didn't, Silver would rape her.   
  
Shadow saw Silver racing toward her tree like a mad dog. She'd seen him horny before, but never this bad! His intentions assaulted her senses, and she climbed further up the tree, knowing he'd possibly kill her if she came down. He vainly tried clawing the tree in a desperate effort to climb it. His insisors were extended at full length, not to mention other things. His flashing eyes hypnotized her like a snake's. Silver was more Wolf now than she'd ever seen him, and the sight both frightened and aroused her. Then Wolf ran up from behind and grabbed his brother around the middle, pulling him away from the tree. They wrestled on the ground and snarled. Barely intelligible words came from them as they fought.   
  
"I won't let you hurt her!" Wolf said as he pinned Silver, his own eyes flashing yellow mixed with green.   
  
"No one can stop a Wolf in need, not even you, brother." Silver snarled back, throwing him off. He once again resumed his position at the base of the tree, growling both seductively and dangerously up at the crouching Shadow. Her smell was driving him completely crazy now, especially at this close range. And so was the sight of her. So long, so lucious, so inviting...  
  
Then he was hit by a sudden wave of sleep that came out of nowhere, and collapsed to the ground. Wolf whirled around, stunned, to see Virginia with a sack of sleep dust in her hand. She had knocked out Silver cold.   
  
Wolf rushed protectively over to her. "Virginia! You shouldn't be out here! You're still recovering!"  
  
Virginia waved him off. "I'm fine, Wolf." she insisted, though she still waddled from her post pregnancy stomach. "Shadow, you can come down now, it's alright. He'll sleep the rest of the night." Shadow jumped straight from the branch, 50 feet up, and landed on her feet. They both stared at her.   
  
"That never ceases to amaze me." Wolf said, and Shadow smiled nervously. She was shaking, and not just out of fear, and looked at Silver hesitantly on the ground. With amazing strength, Wolf hoisted him over his shoulder and started carrying him off. Shadow was getting to him too, though not as bad, and he needed a distraction to keep him from thinking about her. He loved Virginia dearly, but the sooner this cat-woman was mated, the better. Huff-puff, she was stubborn! Even Virginia hadn't taken that long to succomb. Virginia had been sensing this situation for months, and knew she couldn't put off talking to Shadow about it any longer. She sighed, and followed Wolf into the castle. Thankfully, all was still quiet in there, at least. After imparting to Shadow that she wanted to have a talk with her in the morning, Virginia and Wolf returned to their chambers.   
  
***  
  
The next morning, Shadow came to visit Virginia and her new baby, who she'd come to love as dearly as though he were her own. He seemed to recgnize her, too, giggling and wagging his little fluffy tail in greeting. Virginia and Shadow both looked at each other and laughed.   
  
"How are you feeling?" Virginia asked Shadow.  
  
"I was about to ask you the same."  
  
"I'm fine, really." Virginia smiled. "It's you I'm worried about."  
  
"Why?" Shadow played innocent, though she knew exactly why.   
  
"I'm going to be blunt with you, Shadow." Virginia swallowed nervously. "You need a mate. It's time."  
  
Shadow sighed shakily, the memory of last night hitting her full force. She knew she couldn't get out of this now. She was cornered like a mouse. "But Silver almost killed me."  
  
"He won't do that if you try to talk to him in the daytime, when he's not in his...state." Virginia added awkwardly. "And I'm sure that once this is...taken care of, that even in a full moon it won't be that bad again."  
  
"Why me?" Shadow threw up her hands. "I do not share his love for me, or even his lust." she lied. "And quite frankly, he scares me." That part had been true.   
  
"Then how are we going to put Silver out of his agony?" Virginia insisted, making Shadow bury her face in her hands.   
  
"I don't know!" she wailed from behind them, and ran out of the room. Virginia bit her lip. Hunter squirmed in her arms.   
  
***  
  
Silver had recovered, but could hardly remember his temporary insanity from the night before. Wolf was quick to remind him, however. They had a private breakfast with Prince Wendell downstairs, who was more than curious about all that was going on. Virginia had convinced Shadow to join them, though she sat as far away from Silver as possible.   
  
"Keep that horny bastard away from me." she had hissed to Wolf as she sat down, shooting Silver a venomous look. Virginia had to stifle a giggle. Even Prince Wendell hid a smile.   
  
"I take it all is well otherwise?" he said cheerfully.   
  
"Yes, Your Majesty." Wolf said quickly, diving into his plateful of sausage, bacon and eggs. He was delighted to see Virginia had brought the baby Hunter down and had sat him on her lap, feeding him the babyfood the cooks had specially made for him.   
  
"And how's the baby?" he said more softly, leaning forward and smiling.   
  
"Hungry." Virginia smiled back, her eyes twinkling. Hunter kept trying to play with Shadow's tail, and Shadow was laughing, her own tail swishing back and forth. The baby giggled, too.   
  
Prince Wendell smiled even broader at Shadow, amazed at the changes that had happened over the past few months. "I see you're doing well." he said congineally. "I must say you're almost ladylike."  
  
Shadow's eyes twinkled mischieviously. "Don't bet on it." she winked. They all laughed, Silver stopping to stare at her longer than the others. Shadow caught him and stared down at her food, suddenly very interested in a piece of runny egg. A starchily-dressed waiter approached the table with a plateful of bread.   
  
"Would His Highness care for more bread?" he offered in a business-like voice. Prince Wendell waved him off. Little Hunter decided it was playtime, and flung some food right in the waiter's face. They all cracked up laughing. The waiter flung the offending matter off in his prissy way, then turned on his heel toward the kitchen. They could almost hear him muttering, "children!"  
  
Shadow hated to admit it, but this was the best home she'd ever lived in. The rest of them were thinking the same thing. In spite of all the weird problems, there were just as many spectacular blessings. But these quiet moments were the most savored of all. They didn't speak it, but they were a family. Shadow included.   
  
***  
  
Shadow had long ago (at least most of the time) given up her tongue grooming and started to use the bath to get clean. She loved Prince Wendell's big master bathroom. It was so decorative and luxurious, with a huge skylight that let the sun inside in faint rays. Of course, she'd done her part in cleaning it, too, along with the other rooms. And there were even more of them to clean now that Tony had gotten the new architecture going. But Shadow didn't mind. A part of her still longed for her old home, but this one had so much more. And most importantly, there were real people here to love.   
  
She pushed open the door to the bathroom, but stifled a gasp of shock to see that it was occupied. By none other than that aggravating Silver! After the two seconds of shock passed, she couldn't run like her instincts told her before she was discovered. His back was to her and he was naked. His tail was even bigger and longer than Wolf's, and it lay gracefully on the floor behind him. She couldn't stop staring at him. He was medium height, but slender, muscular and very shapely. She blushed as an adreniline rush shot through her. Only then did she turn to run.   
  
But Silver's voice sounded behind her. "I know you're there, Shadow, I can smell you." he said both teasingly and ominously. A small smile covered his handsome face as he knew she'd seen him. But Shadow kept running.   
  
***  
  
It was that morning that Virginia and Wolf came up with a plan. A perfect plan. They grabbed Silver in the hallway and pulled him into their room.   
  
"We finally figured out how to get you two together!" Virginia beamed as she sat with Wolf facing him.   
  
"Kissingtown!" Wolf chimed, answering her.   
  
A wolf-sly smile crept across Silver's face. "Why, of course! Why didn't I think of that before?" he rubbed his hands together.   
  
"We'll all go as a group, pretend it's just a fun outing, which, of course, it will be." Virginia said in a bubbly voice, remembering how Wolf had proposed to her there. "She won't suspect a thing!"  
  
"I'm giving you some money." Wolf said, spilling a bunch of coins into Silver's hands. "Go to the jewler and buy her a talking ring. Then, take her to the same place we went for dinner and give it to her. Tell her how you feel about her. Do it right, and you won't fail."  
  
Virginia nodded. "Well, Wolf, it actually took us having a bunch of misadventures together and almost losing each other for me to say yes." she reminded him. "But I have to admit, that romancing had a lot to do with it." She hugged him.   
  
"Romance her first, seduce her after." Wolf winked at Silver.   
  
***  
  
After much explaining, and telling Shadow that there was a catnip shop in Kissingtown, she finally agreed to go. The town was bustling, as usual. With Tony, the Mirror Breaker, absent, the inhabitants didn't seem to remember Wolf and Virginia. Shadow couldn't resist the urge to extend her claws and pop several balloons till she got yelled at and had to run. She felt like a kitten here. So many toys to play with! Everything was so colorful, and there were so many good smells and pretty shapes. She purred the whole way through town, not caring about the weird looks some of the humans gave her. Wolf and Virginia walked arm in arm, reliving their own pleasant memories of this place. Shadow walked behind them, looking back to make sure Silver wasn't getting too close. She was both enraged and exited that he was staring at both her tail and the butt it was attached to.   
  
Huff-puff, she has an alluring walk...Silver thought brazenly as he walked behind her. He admired the way her silky white hair bounced against her back with every step, and the way her hips swivelled with the movement of her legs. Her tail hypnotized him, too, but it also stung him when he got too close. He started calling her Whiplash, which only served to further enrage her. When they approached the restaurant Wolf had propsed to Virginia in, Silver suddenly ducked out of sight. Shadow breathed a sigh of relief.   
  
Silver had gone into the jewlers. He bought a different ring from the one Wolf had given to Virginia. This was one of the funny little jumping ones with googly eyes and cotton-candy stick up blue hair. It didn't sing, but it rhymed. He pocketed it in a gold case along with some catnip and stole over to the restaurant. By now, Shadow was getting suspicious, and frowned with exasperation.   
  
"I know what you all are up to." she said, smiling despite herself after the disapproving frown. A waiter came with a capnip-laced plate of food and set it in front of Shadow. It was then that Silver made a stealthy appearance and sat down across from her. "How predictable." Shadow smirked, digging into her food. She had barely taken a bite when the rhyming ring popped out, saying:  
  
"Your life could change today, but that depends on what you say!" The voice was cute, high and bubbly. Shadow was mortally embarassed. Now she KNEW why they'd brought her here! She picked up her glass of wine and threw it in Silver's face. Then, with a huff, she stood up to leave. But then the catnip kicked in. She started laughing and pointing at Silver while Wolf and Virginia watched in amused horror from their table. Now it was Virginia's ring's turn to sing:  
  
"This is so funny! He's all wet and runny!"  
  
They cracked up hard. Giddy, Shadow went over to Silver and started licking the wine off his face, sitting in his lap sideways.   
  
"Uh, I think we'd better leave you two alone..." muttered Virginia both laughing and embarassed. Wolf and Silver exchanged flashing eyes before Wolf followed her.   
  
"Down, girl!" Silver admonished Shadow, pulling her face away from his. "You're high. This isn't right..." he trailed off, struggling with himself. He called for the waiter to replace her plate with a catnip-free one. Before he took it away, Shadow plucked the ring out and stuck it on her finger, waving it under Silver's nose.   
  
"Lookit! It TALKS!" she said, pulling it away to stare at it in great fascination.   
  
"You like it?"  
  
"I LOVE it!" Shadow said with exhuberance, leaping up to hug him. He had to pry her away again.   
  
"Please there's plenty of time for that later. I want you to eat something."  
  
"Okay." Shadow said kittenishly, purring and smiling dumbly at him. By the time she'd eaten a few bites of food, the catnip had worn off, and she blushed profusely. "Oh my God, what have I done?" she said, disgusted with herself. "What have you done to ME?" she demanded Silver, her voice rising.   
  
Silver remained calm. "I did nothing to you, my sweetness, but YOU were all over ME."   
  
"Keep that catnip AWAY from me!" Shadow yelled, feeling helpless and embarassed. 


	8. Chapter 8

WOLF'S TALE: PART 8  
  
  
That night, Shadow went stalking fish in the river near Wendell's castle to clear her head.   
  
And also because she was hungry.   
  
Her eyes were irridesent in the dark; they could pierce through the murkiest waters. She was thankful this river was clean. A patch of sentient, carnivourous algae had almost killed her as a kitten, wrapping around her and trying to drag her underwater. She'd slashed at it with teeth and claws until it was forced to let go. Stereotype or not, Shadow was cursed with an insatiable curiosity for anything unknown. Her thoughts strayed back to Silver.  
  
"I should apologize to him." she sighed, spearing a squiggling trout with one claw. Her mind was tormented by her conflicted feelings. It had been hard enough accepting their bond as children, but now he wanted to take things further. She remembered what Virginia had said in one of her many loving, but insistent lectures, most of them about what she'd gone through before accepting Wolf. The latest thing she'd told her was something he'd told her when they'd camped out in the abandoned Snow White cottage.   
  
"If you keep hiding, you might not get hurt, but you won't get loved, either." Virginia had quoted him, giving Shadow a very serious look. Shadow had to admit she was right. She'd lived alone all her life, never needing anybody until that day she'd been trapped. She'd held to her fierce independence since then, despite all the other changes.   
  
"What are you so afraid of?" she asked herself mentally. "Have you ever really thought about that?"   
  
The night air drifted Silver's presence to her again. Shadow slipped under the water to hide, but Silver had already smelled and seen her. "I know you're there Shadow. I'm not gonna chase you up a tree this time, I promise. I just want to talk." Then, a wicked grin crossed his face and he picked up a fish. "You're a good hunter." he teased, raising his voice so it could reach her underwater. "Thanks for bringing me dinner."   
  
SPLASH!   
  
Shadow emerged enraged from the river. "That's MINE!" she yelled, scooping up the two other fish she had caught, which were still flopping madly. Silver stared at her, flinging the spine of the eaten fish away. She was even more beautiful soaking wet than dry and groomed. Her ebony body gleamed in the moonlight and showed everything. Her red nipples emerged hard from her fur, erect from the cold water and air. Silver's tongue hung out and he panted from arousal, making the same little whining noises as his brother did during such times. "Get away from me, you damn perrrrverrrt!" Shadow growled, shoving him into the cold river. He yelped and howled, sending up great torrents of water as he splashed in panic. Shadow threw her head back and laughed. She was enjoying this TOO much...  
  
"Just what you need, you hormonal Wolf." she yelled. Silver decided to play a nasty trick. He pretended to drown. He put on a very convincing display of panic before chocking convulsively and slipping under the water. Shadow wasn't laughing anymore.   
  
"Oh my God..."  
  
Her pride and fear temporarily shelved, she dove in after him and dragged him to the bank. He was as heavy and seemingly lifeless as a limp fish. Silver resisted an urge to grab her as she pinned him on either side of his shoulders with her arms and lay her head down on his chest to listen for his breath. He was a pro at holding it. He was in actuality an excellent swimmer as he was a runner, and had once had to hide underwater for several minutes from a mad farmer.   
  
Then came the best part. Shadow was forced to do mouth-to-mouth. Silver saw his cue. He started kissing her back, hungrily. She screamed into the kiss before pulling away to slash him across the face with her claws. How DARE he! Silver whined in pain, covering his hand to the scratches as Shadow ran off into the trees.   
  
"I'm sorry!" (whine-whine) "I'm really sorry!" Silver called to no avail. How could you be so stupid?! he admonished himself. You've really blown it this time...  
  
Shadow had second thoughts as guilt drew her back to his side. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to slash you so hard..." she said hesitantly, looking down with concern but keeping a safe distance. Silver put on an exaggerated show. He whined, kicked, pawed and yelped. Shadow was torn between extreme amusement and total exasperation. "Would you STOP it already? I said I was sorry!" This time she DID bend down over him and started licking the cuts clean. Silver's body relaxed, a smile forming on his face as once again desire took over. He whined cutely, nuzzling her head with his own and actually getting a soft giggle out of her. "Hey, it's MY job to mark my territory..." she teased, pulling back, still kneeling in the grass. She used same grass to clean her tongue. "Bleh, Wolf blood!" she muttered, half teasing. Silver sat up, staring at her thoughtfully.   
  
"I originally came out here to talk." he said honestly, his blue-green eyes sparkling in the dim light of the grove. "How long are you going to keep running? I know what you're afaid of, but you won't admit it."  
  
Shadow lept up and glared down at him. "You know NOTHING! You can barely think for yourself, DO NOT presume to think for me!" Silver really looked hurt. Shadow had to bite her lip to keep her own tears from forming and giving away her vulnerability. She had to keep up the act just a little longer...  
  
His voice was tender as he spoke. He longed to put his arm around her, but she wouldn't allow it. The Ice Queen, that's what she was...  
  
"You know, just because a Wolf...a Man...knows your vulnerabilities dosen't necessarily make him your enemy."  
  
"Ha! And what would you know of THAT?" Shadow retorted derisively, tossing her long white hair. "I'm a cold, tough survivor. I'm not one of your little female admirers who's going to faint every time you walk by, and nothing in this human-infested kingdom including YOU, Mr. CHARM, holds any interest for me what - so - ever. What do you think of THAT?"  
  
Without thinking, Silver grabbed Shadow and pulled her to him in a gentle, but urgent kiss. Damn, she couldn't pull away this time. She was too weak. But she wasn't about to let him know he'd won just yet. She kept her arms still, and her mouth submissive. Make him guess...she thought. She forgot that he could smell her own desire, and that it was about to explode. As the kiss lengthened, Silver did something he'd wanted to do for the longest time. He pulled her against him by her rear, growling as his hands kneaded her soft flesh and his straining erection felt her even softer opening. He felt her fire shoot up his shaft, the flames licking up to his blossoming tip. She was purring seductively, making it even hotter. To his suprize, she didn't resist his embrace. They broke away to stare at each other.   
  
"Don't tell me you didn't want that." he said in the huskiest voice she'd ever heard, her eyes dialated so fully they were almost black.   
  
"ddddddddddddddd...." Shadow purr-growled in response, which only inflamed him more. Her inner voice screamed at her to stop, that she was making a fool of herself. Silver kissed her forehead and started stroking the base of her tail, which was also lifting slowly in arousal. The tip of it found Silver's own tail and stroked it as she pulled against him for a return kiss. This time, she let her tongue dance slowly in his mouth. She loved the way he felt, every part of him. She found her arms around his back and fought the urge to wrap her legs around it as well. His mouth cupped around the flesh of her long neck then, and he sighed and moaned softly as he Wolf-nipped down the length of it. Shadow was now officially swept away,and there wasn't a thing she could do but accept it. She realized how hungry she'd been for this man now as she succumbed to his embrace. They fell to the ground, growling and nipping playfully. Shadow's laugh turned into a different sounding one than she used for amusement. It was high and desperate. Every time he gave her a love bite she'd shriek. His tongue found her neck now and started licking her up and down. Silver's playful whines were turning to growls and he was getting more aggressive. Feeling more aggressive herself, Shadow dipped the tip of her tongue into his ear and circled it, breathing heavily. The sweet musk of her arousal mixing with his own was causing Silver's eyes to turn that predatorial shade of green. They flashed at her now as he struggled out of his clothes. Shadow's claws had extended and she ripped them off the rest of the way, careful not to pierce his skin.   
  
She suddenly got a wicked idea. "Chase me!" she giggled to Silver, and scampered up the nearest tree. She perched on the lowest branch, just out of reach, and teased him from above. "I can sit here all night." she purred.   
  
Seeing Shadow's arousal spread open and wet in this position above him drove him crazy. "I'll get you..." he snarled, sneaking around her backside and yanking on her tail, which she had forgotten to flip up out of reach. Shadow yelped and lost her balance, falling to the ground on top of him. His tail stuck out between his legs and she couldn't resist stroking it. She used both her hands and her face, purring the whole time. Silver was shaking with need. She was barely controlling her own tension, and it was getting to the point of breaking. So at last, Shadow put them both out of their misery. Rising on all fours she purred at Silver to get behind her. She raised her tail and her buttocks, exposing her dripping ruby red swollen jewel. She felt the hot fire of Silver's breath on her neck. "Bite me." she told him. He obeyed her quite willingly, taking a snag of her flesh gently but urgently into his mouth. Shadow yowled. "Take me now." she breathed, feeling his swollen tip and shaft rubbing against her. With a tense growl, Silver pushed inside. She was like a cave with many chambers, each one deeper and wider than the last. Now it was his turn to cover his hot mouth to her ear and search it's depths. Shadow was moaning with quiet desperation in both human and cat noises, her ragged breathing combining with Shadow's as he started moving with slow urgency. His movements were at first deep and small, the tip of his penis never leaving her inner chamber. His fingers gently brushed her nipples up and down as he rub/thrusted. As she opened up more, he slid out of her halfway then thrusted more shallowly, taking himself all the way out to rub his tip against her clit and slide it back into her slippery depths. He did this repeatedly until she started pushing against him, her whole body quivering with primal urgency. Finally he dove into her all the way, the base of his penis rubbing against her swollen clit on the downward thrusts. As he felt his climax building, Silver bit Shadow's neck harder, unintentionally drawing blood as she screamed her own shuddering orgasm into the night. He squirted into her so hard that some it backed up and shot onto the ground. Still inside her, he pulled Shadow down onto him as he lay on his back, his sweat mixing with hers and their hot wet mouths covering each others in sliding, tonguy kisses. Silver drew out of her, still semi erect, and lay it against the surface of Shadow's still-wet opening. A chain reaction of late pleasure surged in her body, and she rubbed against him until her body arched in another explosive climax even stronger than the first. "My God..." Silver muttered as she lay panting against him, amazed at her virility. Finally she released him and cuddled him, purring, in a sleeping embrace. Before they drifted off to sleep, Shadow uttered these words:  
  
"Silver, I love you. I'm crazy about you. But if you ever tell anybody, I'll kill you."  
  
He didn't know if she was teasing or not. He didn't care. She was his. 


	9. Chapter 9

WOLF'S TALE: PART 9  
  
  
"Good morning-good morning!" Silver chanted to Shadow as he burst through her room. "Wake up, my whiskered-one! It's a glllorious day!" He pounced on her bed like a puppy and ruffled the sheets before realizing Shadow was gone.   
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"  
  
He dashed down the hall dressed only in his dark blue robe, passing some giggling housekeepers in his crazed search for the catwoman. He barrelled into Wolf and Virginia, who were on their way downstairs for breakfast. Virginia's mouth hung open when she saw him before she stifled a giggle, and his brother looked at him more than a little sideways.   
  
"Woa, take it easy!" Wolf had to brace both his arms before he knocked them over. "Why do you run like the wind on such a fine morning, Silver?"  
  
"Shadow's gone! OWOOOOOOOOO!" he howled. Virginia and Wolf both looked around nervously. Prince Wendell looked up with an amused expression from where he could see them through a space near the dining table.   
  
"Is everything alright up there?" he asked, fluffing his cloth napkin without looking at it. Virginia and Wolf pulled along a dejected Silver down the staircase.   
  
"Uh, we're gonna be short one this morning." Virginia said nervously, her fake smile quickly fading as they sat down. Silver literally slouched in his chair, whimpering. Wolf elbowed him to shut him up. "Shadow's gone." she finished, guiltily.   
  
"I'll call out a search party immediately." Wendell announced.   
  
Silver jumped up. "No! I'll look for her myself." Before anybody could say anything, he was out the door.   
  
***  
  
Shadow was in a long unused tunnel. She'd found it the night before after her romp with Silver. It had appeared quite by accident when she was trying to catch a sentient mouse that had been taunting her under the bed. It hadn't taunted her very long when it saw her claws. Shadow had pried off a loose floorboard to get to the mouse and had practically fallen through a twenty foot drop. Curiosity got the best of her, so she decided to see where this weird old tunnel led. She put on her talking ring for good luck, and hopped down. Her cat-eyes dialated to full so she could see in the dark. It smelled musty down here, and small scurrying mice whispered and hid as she passed. She wasn't about to eat anything that could talk. Who knew what else those mice could do. And there were other things down here, too. Smells she couldn't identify...  
  
Something bad had passed this way, Shadow could feel it. But it had been long ago. She shivered, but kept walking. Faint, dusty light up ahead told her the old tunnel was coming to an end, and she ran on in pursuit of it. Something made her ears and fur stand up. A mirror. And old familiar smells. Virginia's. Wolf's. They had been here. But why?  
  
The mirror gave off a (inaudible to human ears) high-pitched bell-like sound in slow motion. Shadow looked at herself looking at the object in confusion. She put her ears to the glass and it sounded the same. Then she turned her head. The sound seemed to get louder off to the side. She moved her head and inclined her ear upwards to a round engraving with sharp raised edges. That was it! Whatever it was, the sound was coming from there! The next logical step was to move her hands over it, and she was suprized to see that the piece moved slightly. A small ray of light shot out around the edges of the mirror and she hiss/gasped as it startled her. Summoning her courage, Shadow threw it back the rest of the way and fell back as the mirror suddenly exploded in light, color, and then, shapes.   
  
"It's another world!" she gasped in awe from her sitting position on the dusty floor. She remembered Wolf telling Silver that Virginia was a princess from the 10th Kingdom. This was it! She had found the magic device that had brought her into their world! Dare she enter?   
  
Meow, yes!  
  
Taking the long clawed tips of her fingers, Shadow gingerly dipped them into the fluid surface. But instead of finding them surrounded by water, she was surrounded - and drawn in - by light. The rest of her followed like a magnet. There was no turning back now. She felt weightless as she was sucked through a rushing tunnel of light. She emerged seconds later, hurtling through the air as she tripped on a pop bottle laying near the edge of the entrance. She gave a cat scream as the pain of the fall ripped through her body, but recovered quickly. She was laying in grass, but it was littered with strange debris she could not identify. The trees surrounding the park were like home, yet unlike it. Even stranger, she once again smelled Wolf and Virginia, and stranger yet, Prince Wendell. What had HE been doing here? Sightseeing? She still felt a little disoriented from the dimensional shift. Such a strange, but alluring place.   
  
Then she heard the birds. Thousands of them, in the trees, on the ground, everywhere. It was a hunter's paradise! They weren't the intelligent, magic talking birds either. Shadow cat-grinned.   
  
"DINNER!"   
  
She lept up a tree toward the squawking starlings.   
  
Just as luck would have it, a cop came walking by and saw the weird display. "Hey you, take off. Halloween's over." he yelled at Shadow, who was climbing down the tree with a dead bird in her mouth. "What the hell???" the cop was in shock now. He radioed for help. "Gimme some backup, we got a psycho here..."  
  
Shadow ran off into the trees. She had understood every word. 


	10. Chapter 10

WOLF'S TALE: PART 11  
  
  
Silver emerged, panting and disoriented, through the mirror into the park, clad only in his blue robe. His tail stuck out comically at the back end, making it look deformed. He'd grabbed one of Virginia's clawed hair clasps on his way out to hold the front of his robe closed over the crucial area, but the shoulders kept falling down as he ran and he had to keep pulling them back up. He smelled her trail immediately, growing fainter towards the center of the park. Before he followed it, Silver stood and observed his surroundings. So THIS was what the 10th Kingdom was like! Wolf had been right. So many delectable smells to tantalize one's Wolfish nostrils. But he couldn't be distracted by that now. He had to find Silver before something really bad happened...  
  
Then he saw the young woman painting in a clearing. The only other thing more distracting to Silver besides food was the opposite sex, mate or no mate. What's more, she smelled familiar...  
  
She had a huge canvas propped up in front of her and bottles of paint scattered over a cheap cloth spread on the ground. When she saw him, her eyes went wide. She dropped her pencil and faced him like she was beholding a holy vision. "Can you pose for me?" she pleaded, looking him up and down like Silver did when he was sizing up his prey. "It'll only take a few minutes, I promise! You're perfect!" She practically gasped on the last sentence, and Silver felt flattered as hell.   
  
"You are a vision of lovliness yourself, my lady." Silver bowed with a gratuitous smile. "A few moments of my time are the least I can spare for such a grand endeavor. How shall I pose for you?"   
  
The redhead held her hand to her chest as though to ward off a swoon and looked at him longingly. "Recline on the ground." she finally found her words. "Is that robe the only thing you're wearing?"   
  
"I'm afraid it is, my lady. I was forced to leave home this morning in a most unfortunate predicament." She couldn't tell if he was playing innocent or not.   
  
"Would you mind opening it just in the front but leaving it over your shoulders? And what's that sticking out the back?" She looked with both amusement and suspicion. Before Silver could answer, she whipped the robe off and gasped when she saw the tail. "Holy s***! You've got a TAIL!" Silver panicked, hastily covering up his hind end.   
  
"It's fake, really!" he lied. "I've just come from a...play in another part of the park."  
  
But then the redhead started giggling. "I LOVE it! I'll do two portraits, one with the robe and one without. Do you mind?"  
  
Of course, Silver didn't mind. He relaxed visibly, though he still glanced nervously at the woods. "If it please you, my lady." he smiled again. She ran giggling to her canvas and started her work.   
  
***  
  
Shadow had escaped the policeman, but now she was lost. She thought she caught Silver's scent from far away, but couldn't tell where it was coming from. Then she stopped at the sound of voices. They sounded very strange. Shadow peeked through a bush and saw several humans sitting in a circle with one human in the center, his arms outstretched. His head was back and his eyes were closed. He was in a trance. All the others had their heads bowed around him. Suddenly, the leader came to life, his eyes wide. "I have contacted the Goddess! She is here!"   
  
Shadow looked behind her and all around. She saw no one. But the cult leader's spaced-out eyes were peering intently through the bush at HER. Certainly, he had powers beyond HER comprehension.   
  
"Come join us, Starchild!" he said warmly, but with urgency. "We've all been waiting a very long time for this visit."  
  
They had???   
  
Shadow sensed there was something wrong with them, but that they were harmless. There was something in the air she didn't like, though. It didn't smell, but faint traces of it drifted into her sensetive cat nose and made her a little lightheaded. The people in the clearing made her feel just as strange. They were all wearing gold pyramids on their heads and were dressed in funny clothes. The leader wore a gold cape. They all had tattoos of stylised slanted eyes on their foreheads.   
  
Shadow hesitated. If she didn't come out, they might surround and capture her, possibly kill her. There were too many of them to escape by running. Of course, she could always climb a tree and jump by branch until she got ahead of them, but these people looked like they had strange magic powers. Perhaps they were a strange band of gypsys, or witches. But why would they be in the 10th Kingdom?  
  
Shadow slowly walked into the clearing, prepared to do battle if any of them made a wrong move. The reaction she got was more than unexpected. It was embarassing.  
  
They all gasped as one, the leader included, and bowed low, chanting something. Shadow rolled her eyes. They believed she was a goddess of some kind! Fancy that! Well, if she had to play along to get out of here, she'd play it to the hilt.   
  
And she did.  
  
"I am deeply assshamed of each and evvvery one of you." she growled in her most dangerous cat-talk ever. She swished her tail on the ground with annoyance, flipping a loose pile of leaves at them. They all cringed as though the leaves would ignite on contact. "Especially YOU!" Shadow pointed at the leader, who started to grovel at her clawed feet.   
  
"Oh Mistress, I NEVER meant to fail you!" he whined on all fours, looking up at her imploringly.   
  
"Get up, crrretin!" Shadow demanded in a disgusted voice, enjoying this little game. She flipped his backside with the tip of her tail and he practically did a sommersault. Shadow struggled not to laugh out loud. She flexed her claws dramatically and checked them like fingernails. "I want you all to rrreturnnnto the temple and sacraficcce thrrree rrabbits to abase my wrrath. Go now, or I will set a horrrible curse upon you." They saw her flashing eyes and wasted not a moment's time. They ran through the park, and were promptly arrested for drug possession. Now it was Shadow's turn to be scared. It was the same cop who was still looking for her. She now climbed that tree and looked down, hidden, over the park. She smelled Silver again, and it was stronger this time. She laughed privately to herself. So he'd come looking for her after all. She'd have to praise his tracking skills later.   
  
Last night came rushing back like a flow of adreniline. It had overwhelmed her so much that Shadow had run away. She felt ashamed, like she had lost a part of her soul. The love-hate relationship she shared with Silver was more love than hate, but it was a life she did not welcome readily. She also felt guilty for leaving him in the middle of the night to wonder where she was. She was sure Wolf was glad to be rid of her. He hated her, at least that was the impression he gave. She didn't have any doubts about Virginia's acceptance, or Wendell's, however gradual. Even the dog Prince was getting used to her. Now here she was, back in the woods, but it didn't feel like home. Fun as it had been exploring she wanted to go back. Now.  
  
But first, she had to find that stubborn Silver...  
  
And then she saw him. It was his flopping tail that caught her attention first. There was another figure in front of him, a female, and she was working on a big piece of parchment close to her face. She'd stop to look, talk and flirt with Silver intermittently. Shadow took care of the flirting part. With an ominous growl she leaped from tree to tree until she got to the final perch, then dropped down on the girl's head. Silver started in suprize and horror as Shadow tumbled her to the ground in a literal catfight. He hadn't seen her this ferocious since she'd attacked HIM. When Silver finally pulled Shadow off her, they were both a mess, the girl worse off, of course. Shadow saw the portrait of Silver, which now had cat scratches across it, and snatched it away. "I'll be taking this, thank you." The girl was shaking and crying, and Silver started to go over to comfort her when they all whipped around.  
  
"FREEZE!!!" the cop shouted, his gun pointed at them. He was immediately joined by his circling buddies, also with guns. "Not you!" he said with irritation at the red haired girl, who looked like she was having a nervous breakdown. She shakily gathered her things and ran. She grabbed the other portrait of Silver from behind a tree. It was the one with the tail.   
  
Enraged and scared, Shadow started to lunge forward to attack the circle of cops, but Silver held her back so hard he practically knocked the wind out of her. "NO!" he hissed fiercely, his eyes flashing. The cops didn't seem to notice.   
  
"Stand back, this...female's under arrest." the first cop said to Silver. Silver obliged, backing up reluctantly.   
  
"Should we cuff 'er or cage 'er?" another cop said jokingly.   
  
"She's standing on two legs. Get the cuffs." the first one said with irritation. But Shadow had gone completely feral. It was fight or flight. She chose flight. And was promptly stun gunned. Now Silver lost it. He rushed with a growl fiercer than Shadow's at the cop who had shot her and wrestled him to the ground before he, too, was stunned. He fell naked to the ground, his robe having caught on a tree. They were all shocked to see his tail.   
  
"Chief, we got another furry." the first cop announced shakily into his radio. They all looked at each other in disbelief.   
  
*** 


	11. Chapter 11

WOLF'S TALE: PART 11  
  
  
"This jail SUCKS, man!"   
  
The five-member self-made group called the Starwalkers lolled around their cell. The drugs had worn off. Now they were majorly depressed, and majorly Generation X.   
  
Then two cops walked by with the limp bodies of Shadow and Silver, still half asleep. Their feet dragged as they stumbled along to their cell - right next to the 20-something ufo cult group. They all backed up in shock as they saw them. "That's the cat chick!" one girl pointed at Shadow. "What's SHE doing here? And check out the guy with the tail..."  
  
The leader shouted at the policemen. "Don't hurt her. She's our Queen!"  
  
The cop smirked. "Yeah, right. And I'm the President..." The cell door slammed behind him.   
  
The leader of the Starwalkers peered around as far as his fluffy head would allow. "I can't believe it! That's really her! I'm off the drugs, right?" he implored his followers, pinching himself.   
  
Silver groggily woke up at the same moment. When his eyes focused on his meager and confined surroundings, he howled like a puppy in pain. The guard thought he was playing around, and told him to knock it off. Silver whimpered instead, and wrapped Shadow's tail around him like a blanket. He laid his head on her fluffy stomach. Then he startled, for something was different about her. Her stomach was as flat and slender as usual, but he could hear/sense the movements of new life. Oh, his succulent little whiplash was pregnant! If he wasn't in jail he would be bounding with joy. He let her sleep, debating on whether to tell her or not. Then her ring decided to talk up a storm.   
  
"Is this a jail I see? When will we be set free?"  
  
"Quiet!" shushed Silver. The little ring's eyes moved all around.   
  
The ring continued in a reedy whisper. "Before you say please, I'll get the keys!"  
  
"What?" Silver said in shock. "How are you going to do that?"  
  
The cop walked by the Starwalker's cell on his way to get some dinner down the street.The leader of the Starwalkers jeered at him. "Bad cop, no doughnut!" he said as his cronies laughed. The ring hopped off Shadow's finger and followed him, climbing into his pocket. Silver gave a little helpless noise, followed by "Cripes!"  
  
***  
  
After a long argument, Virginia won going after Silver and Shadow. They both emerged from the mirror now. They had left Hunter with royal babysitters. No way were they going to expose the baby to unnecessary dangers. Besides, things might get messy...Wolf thought as he started picking up their trail.   
  
Virginia and Wolf had both also taken troll dust. Ironically, they seemed to need it more here than in the 9 other kingdoms. Wolf looked guilty. "This is all my fault. I made Shadow feel unwanted. Well, I actually DIDN'T want her around at first. She was nothing but a snarling...beastie." Virginia smirked at him.   
  
"And you're not?" she slapped his leg teasingly. He snapped back at her and growled in his customary Wolf play.   
  
"Better watch what you say, my creamy one." He picked Virginia up suddenly, making her screech and laugh. "I'm still a dangerous, evil animal." He put her down, serious again. "I'm sure they went THIS way..." he started running ahead of her, the scent growing stronger...  
  
***  
  
Twenty year old Helen Hood stood back and admired the painting of Silver for the umpteenth time. It was moments like this that she desperately wished she had the privacy of her own place, without her mother snooping around. Her mother was very protective. She wanted Helen to go into something practical, like accounting. She didn't believe anybody could make a living off art, no matter how beautifully it was rendered. They argued about this constantly. Helen, meanwhile, had found a part time job as a secretary for the Queens Precinct jail, a job which she tolerated. She at first had taken it because the environment was "edgy", and she felt it would inspire her art. But after two months, she was the one who was now edgy. It wasn't the cleanest place to work in the world. Some of the papers she had to file even had dried blood on them. At least she only had to work there three days a week, swing shift.   
  
Today she felt better than usual. Not just because she was home, but because her mother (reluctantly) had left town on business for four days. She'd told her to clean the house thoroughly while she was gone, partly to keep her out of imagined trouble. Right now, Helen would rather stare at Silver's picture. She wondered where the mysterious stranger was now. Normal people didn't have tails growing out of their butts like that. And there had been something about his eyes...  
  
Helen decided to put the picture up on the wall over her bed. Silver looked out over the room like a predatorial, seductive guardian angel. With one last stare, Helen went to clean the house. She cleaned her mother's room last. While she vacuumed under the bed, the machine bumped against a heavy old trunk. Helen turned the vacuum off. Curious, she pulled the trunk out and lifted the lid. Piles of memorabilia were stuffed inside. Following a sudden instinct, she dug through it and pulled out a thick, very old diary. Dare she peek into the secrets of her mother's, and who knew who else's, past? She opened it. The dates went back two generations, the oldest so splotched it was hard to read. The book had belonged to her grandmother as well, and included her entries before her mother's. She decided to read her grandmother's first.   
  
May 19  
  
"I do not know my sister anymore." it read, the words stained with teardrops or water, she couldn't tell. "She has disgraced the family by marrying a Wolf. She has ruined the Hood family name. I am taking my daughter Susan and my sons Ralph and William to live in the 4th Kingdom."  
  
The entry seemed to have been written hurridly on a whim, as though her grandmother hadn't been thinking clearly. It was very emotional. Helen had drawn in a breath at the mention of her mother's name. Where was the 2nd Kingdom? Where was the 4th? Was it a code word so she wouldn't give away where she lived? Had they been in hiding from someone? Even more shocking was the mention of a Wolf. She couldn't have literally meant an animal. Then she remembered Silver, and his tail. The truth hit her. That mysterious, handsome stranger was a WOLF! And he had come from that other world! Why hadn't her mother told her this? Why had she kept it hidden all these years? Helen threw the diary down as though it were a live thing about to bite her. Oh, she would confront her mother about THIS, you'd better believe it! Helen felt both shocked, intrigued and angry. What had the Wolves done that was so bad that her grandmother had disowned the entire family? They weren't literally Wolves, were they? The one she'd met in the park acted like a perfect, if a little flirtatious, gentleman. She could see the look on her mom's face if she brought HIM home for dinner! Putting the diary away just like she'd found it, Helen went into the living room to watch TV. She was just in time for the news, where yet another suprize lay waiting.   
  
It was him again! That guy! She saw him being dragged away by police along with that monster catwoman bitch. Why was he with HER? Jealousy raged in her veins and she clutched the chair. She worked at that jail, but she wasn't due in till tomorrow. "It's time for a little overtime." Helen muttered, getting up from the chair. She HAD to see him again... 


	12. Chapter 12

WOLF'S TALE: PART 13  
  
  
Virginia stumbled into Wolf as he stopped suddenly. "They were here." he said in an ominous undertone, sniffing the air. "Com'on." he grabbed her hand and led her in the direction he was just sure they went. Then a little voice in Virginia's pocket started to sing.  
  
"Oh happy day! They've gone this way!" Virginia took the ring out and put it on her finger.  
  
"How do you know?" she asked, suprized at the ring's coming to life.   
  
"Another like me lingers on your friend's finger." the ring answered, smiling.   
  
Virginia looked at Wolf meaningfully. "I think these rings...know each other." she said feeling awkward but hopeful. Wolf looked at the singing ring.   
  
"Keep talking." he said, then started running again. They came to the clearing Helen Hood, Silver and Shadow had been in earlier that day. Wolf's nose twitched with the conflicting scents and he looked all around. "It's a smell smorgasborg in here! Silver and Shadow weren't alone, though." His eyes flashed at the recognition of the cops and Helen Hood. "Aruff!" he growl/barked. "They were taken captive. I know it!"  
  
"Oh my God, the jail!" Virginia realized, and now it was her turn to tug at Wolf's arm. "We gotta go there now!" Wolf's nose lingered just a little longer on Helen's scent, recognizing it with mixed emotions, but he kept it to himself. He made a mental note to investigate later.   
  
***  
  
The rhyming ring waited till the cop was standing in line at McDonald's. Amid all the noise, he didn't see or hear the ring hopping out of his pocket with the keys wrapped around itself. The ring kept hopping - literally - dodging hundreds of feet until it got out the door. It's eyes whizzed in fearful circles at the giants and moving machines around it, but it remembered the steps the cop had taken to get here, and started to follow them backwards. It was only three blocks, but at the rate the ring was going, it was more like three miles. And to make it worse, a passing cat decided it was the best plaything it had seen since kid's toes. The cat paused, sniffed, then batted the ring lightly with a furry paw. The ring's fluffy hair caught on one claw and the cat tossed it in the air so high it landed on a passing cop car. The cat spooked and ran, leaving the ring magnetized to the roof. It's hair blew back all the way and it screamed in a tiny, high pitched voice. Seconds later, the car stopped in front of the station. The ring shook with post traumatic stress syndrome. Then, it saw the girl pass by, on her way to the front doors. With a heave, the ring popped off the car and tumbled into her pocket.   
  
***  
  
Helen sighed, though her heart pounded with anticipation at seeing the stranger again. She knew he was here. It was just a matter of acting casual about it. She was just curious, that was all. If anybody asked her, and she knew they would, she'd say he was an old friend from out of town.   
  
Which indeed he was, in a way.  
  
She'd pretend she was going for a snack, then sneak into the cell section. Of course, one of her nosy coworkers, who always seemed to be there, had to ask questions.  
  
"Hi, Helen, aren't you supposed to be off today?"  
  
"Yeah, but I had some leftover work I had to catch up on."   
  
"Ok, well, you can help me file this..." she dumped half her stack on Helen's desk.  
  
"Thanks..." Helen said flatly, repressing a sigh. She hated filing. But it was worth it to see HIM again. "Hey, I'm going to get something from the snack machine, want anything?" she asked, feeling her heart pounding again.   
  
"Yeah, get me a Snickers."  
  
As Helen walked briskly but (she hoped so) unobtrusively down the hall toward the cells, her pocket started moving with a lot more than just money. The ring was as nervous as she was,and couldn't hold still. She took it out and had to supress a gasp, followed by a quiet laugh of suprize. "Hey, where'd YOU come from?" she said more to herself than the ring, believing that it was one of those new high tech things. The ring shusshed her.  
  
"Please be quiet, or you'll start a riot!" it said in a reedy whisper. Helen laughed again. Then she saw the keys attached to it. Wondering how this funny thing had gotten them attached to it, she hid them before any of the wardens saw her carrying them around.   
  
Especially since she was going to the cells.   
  
Then, she got an idea. She changed direction momentarily to the observation room where the authorities watched the different rooms through cameras. She would pretend to be delivering files, then distract the cops away from the viewscreens.   
  
"Hi, guys!" she said casually with a bright smile as she walked into the room. They grunted back, but in a friendly way, and she pretended to file while discreetly reprogramming the controls for the cell hall to change it's display from every few seconds to every few minutes. She made it show a different part of the building instead during the lapse. That way, it would be often enough so the cops wouldn't suspect, but long enough to allow her to see Silver before they saw her. She finished with a last insertion of a paper into a file to make her act unsuspected, and slipped out of the room. Then, she trotted off to the cells. She had a pass to get in because she often had to deliver files to the warden's station in that part of the prison. The ring started going nuts. "Let me out! Let me out!" it piped in it's highest pitched voice ever.   
  
"Okay!" Helen said, amused. She had barely lifted it to the top of her pocket when the ring jumped out and scooted down the hall. Helen followed. What the heck was that thing doing? She saw it slip under the cell at the end and disappear. Then, she heard familiar voices and her eyes went wide.  
  
"Oh thank you, I can't thank you enough!" Silver whispered emotionally, repressing an urge to howl. He kissed the ring and unlocked the door. Shadow was awake now, and snuck out with him. Then they stopped like deer caught in headlights when they saw Helen.   
  
"Ssssh! You don't see us!" Silver said with quiet desperation, backing up toward the door.   
  
"Wait!" Helen called just as quietly but urgently. "You're never gonna get outta here that way! I know a better way." Shadow glared at Helen but realized she was helping both of them, though she was only doing it for Silver. Shadow bore more ill will toward Shadow than the other way around. But right now the urge to escape overwhelmed all traces of jealousy and resentment, so she kept her claws sheathed. She hustled them just outside the cells to a short hallway leading to a door with an emergency bar across it. "It'll make a lot of noise, but you'll have to risk it. It's either that or try to go through all the other rooms to the front doors unnoticed." she shrugged. "Just run." she added. It looked like she would be leaving work a little earlier than she thought. All three of them burst through the door, setting off the loud alarm. Helen had a hard time keeping up with her carnivorous companions. They ran like the wind. She had to stop and catch her breath just as they were approaching that part of the park that held the travelling mirror. She clung to a tree for support and watched in amazement as they disappeared through it. As soon as she caught her breath, she followed them.  
  
***  
  
Virginia squeezed Wolf's hand a little hard as they approached the jail. "Let me do the talking." she warned him. "And for God's sake keep your tail hidden and don't howl!"  
  
"Okay." Wolf whined pathetically, giving her a pained but determined look.   
  
Virginia put on a fake smile as she approached the reception desk. "Hi. We want to post bail for our cousins, Silver and Shadow Wolfson." she said in a hopefully convincing way.   
  
"Sorry, you just missed the breakout. The prisoners escaped."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
Virginia tugged on Wolf's arm and they ran out of the building. "Wolf honey, I could REALLY use your nose right now." she said desperately, looking around. "Where could they BE?"   
  
Wolf didn't answer. He was already running toward the park. He followed their trail through the mirror once again, then hastily turned the knob to prevent the entry of any following 10th Kingdom foot traffic. He stopped, sniffing. "They didn't go the usual way." he said in a confused voice, twirling around dramatically as he pointed at an area of the floor behind an old crate. "I can't believe it! Huff puff, Virginia, there's another entrance here!" He shoved the crate aside and revealed a panel of stone covering the tunnel entrance. He tore it off and hopped down. Virginia, amazed and nervous, hesitantly followed him. She slid the stone back in place since Wolf in his exitement had forgotten to. The tunnel walls were lit with weird glowing worms called lumens. "I remember now." Wolf announced. "This is the tunnel that Snow White's stepmother used to sneak out into the forest when she went in her disguises. There's an underground river up ahead before we get to the castle. We'll have to swim it." Virginia sighed with exasperation.   
  
"You were right the first time. That girl is more trouble than she's worth."  
  
***  
  
Helen had hidden until Shadow and Silver were far enough ahead, then gone through the mirror. What she saw when she emerged into the dusty room made her genetic memory kick in. So THIS was the place her grandmother had talked about in the diary! It was actually real! She knew she hadn't been invited on this trip. She watched the two furries disappear into a hole in the floor before she ventured out from the box of beanstalks. She wasn't aware of it, but the dried stuff had covered her scent. She waited till their voices and shuffling feet died down, then went in after them, afraid of the dark tunnel lit only by these weird glow worm thingys. Man, she hoped this creepy tunnel didn't go very far. She was even more afraid of where it might lead to.   
  
Several yards down, Helen spun around at the sound of splashing. She ran to the end of the tunnel only to find herself in a larger one with a river. She peered around the corner and saw Silver and Shadow diving into the water to swim out of sight. Oh my God, was that the only way out of here? Then, something shimmering in the water caught her attention. It was a pair of glittery shoes snagged on some algae near the bank, down the opposite direction from where Shadow and Silver had gone. At first, Helen thought it was a dead fish until she got close enough to see the details. It was a glittery pair of shoes! Just out of curiosity, she tried them on. They were a little big, but they felt good on her feet. They actually made her feel a little giddy, like she felt after drinking too much pop. They were light as air. But she wondered how they would hold in the water. She didn't want to leave them behind. Then, as she held out her hands in front of her to dive in, she couldn't see them. It wasn't that dark in there. She picked up one foot and it was invisible, too. "Woa!" she said to herself. "How is this possible?" She felt a wave of delight as she realized she could sneak around anywhere without being noticed in these. "I'm taking you with me." she said to the shoes,and plunged in to the dark, murky water.   
  
***  
  
"What isss that? I hear splasshing." Shadow said in quiet alarm, her ears perking up as she bobbed in the water.   
  
"So do I." Silver echoed, listening intently.   
  
The splashing continued. "Whoever it is must be verry stupid, or verry desperate." Shadow said ominously, unsheathing her claws. Silver growled.   
  
The figures emerged. To their suprize it was Wolf and Virginia. A very soaked and panting Wolf and Virginia.   
  
Silver was overjoyed, as was Shadow. "How did you find us?" Silver said, amazed.  
  
"We followed you in." Wolf said. "You forgot I have the best nose in the family."  
  
"Hah." Silver echoed in playful sarcasm.   
  
"This is all my fault." Shadow said with embarassment. "I wish I'd never found this tunnel."  
  
"Curiosity killed the wolf as much as the cat, my dear." Silver interjected supportively. "My place is by my lifemate's side, if I have to follow you through death itself." Virginia and Wolf exchanged loving and knowing glances. Shadow just looked stunned.   
  
"I'm due for a long catnap." she said, smiling slightly. "There's the way I came in..." she pointed several feet up the tunnel to where the water ended and the ground took it's place. They could all see a faint light up ahead that was the fire for the fireplace in Shadow's room. Shadow sighed with exhaustion and contentment. "All I wanted to do was catch a mouse." she added. One by one, they rose up through the hole in the floor. Helen stayed several paces behind them, just as thankful to find this blessed room as they. She snuck over near the fireplace and sat down invisibly while they talked sitting on the bed.   
  
"Should we tell Prince Wendell?" Virginia asked the others, who all shook their heads.   
  
"No, it's better we keep it this way." Wolf said to her as his brother nodded in agreement. They continued talking about their adventure until they all started nodding sleepily. They were so tired even the Wolves failed to noticed Helen's smell. Of course, the smoke helped to conceal her, too. Wolf and Virginia went to their room leaving Shadow and Silver alone. Silver was more than delighted that Shadow didn't object. Feeling awkward and not wanting to be there when they woke up, Helen tiptoed out of the room to wander around. She wasn't tired yet. And she wanted to check this trippin' place out. Her earlier thoughts came back to haunt her mind. Why had her family been so offended by this Wolf race that they had moved to another world? The ones she had seen hadn't been like that. She figured her grandmother was just being a stuck up old prejudice prude. One thing was for sure, she had no desire to go home right now. Besides, Mom wouldn't be back for two more days. But wait a minute, maybe there was a weird time warp here or something. What if she went back and the world was ten years ahead or behind in time? Helen realized with a shock that she might be stuck here, and she didn't know what to think of that. Exploring was one thing, but she didn't know if she wanted to live here permanently. Well, she'd always wanted to get out of the house...  
  
These shoes were addicting. The thought of taking them off was comparible to pulling out a feeding tube. The longer she wore them, the more this feeling increased. It was making her a little sick. A blur raced past her as she approached a huge staircase. Helen braced herself for a confrontation before she remembered no one could see her.   
  
But the dog Prince had already smelled her.  
  
With a curious whine, he darted to where Helen was standing and sniffed at the shoes. He backed away as though something had bit him, his tail between his legs. Then Helen heard a funny little voice. "Don't be scared of him, that's only Prince the dog." it said from below. Helen peered down and saw a small brown mouse poking it's head out of a hole in the wall.   
  
"I can't believe this. I'm talking to a mouse!" Helen said more to herself than the mouse. "Where am I?" she added, just for the heck of it.  
  
"You're in Prince Wendell's castle. And I can't recall ever seeing YOU before."  
  
"Well, I'm kinda related to the inhabitants..." Helen said dubiously. "Do you know the Hoods?" The mouse's beedy eyes popped as wide as their sockets would allow.   
  
"KNOW them?" it said in amazement. "They have their own kingdom! Didn't you know that?"  
  
"Where is it?" Helen asked in growing determination. This was all starting to make sense now.   
  
"It's in the 2nd kingdom, several miles from here. But I wouldn't advise going alone."  
  
"Why not? It can't be as dangerous as New York."  
  
"Believe me, missy, it's more dangerous than you think. If the Trolls don't get you, the swamp will."  
  
"Trolls?" Helen said nervously, but the mouse didn't get a chance to answer. A lantern came swinging towards her.   
  
"Who's there?" a man's voice called, but Helen didn't answer. Still invisible, she raced down the stairs and ran outside. Whatever was out there couldn't be as bad as what was waiting for her in the castle. She looked up and saw the glow retreat away from the window. She stood in the soft grass as crickets chirped all around her. Now what? 


End file.
